Milligan, Elsie

About the author

Elsie Milligan wrote several books for the Christian publisher Pickering and Inglis. Amongst her children’s books is this one horse-themed title, Golden Girl. Neil Dickson kindly sent me this piece on the author:

‘Elsie Milligan (née Burr) was an English missionary in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) from 1921 until 1942. She was based at Kalene Hill, near Mwinilunga, a mission station of the Christian Brethren where a hospital, school and chapel were maintained. Elsie assisted in the medical work, and then for a while was responsible for the school at the mission station, before itinerating (ie travelling from place to place) for religious and educational purposes in the villages in the surrounding countryside, initially by trekking or cycling and only later, as roads came to the area, by car. A serious breakdown in her health in 1930 necessitated a period of recuperation in South Africa, and finally in 1942 another period of ill-health led to the medical advice that she would no longer be able to live in the tropics. She resigned from the missionary life in 1945, and settled in South Africa where she married Adam Milligan. She wrote her memoirs, Kalene Memories (1956), under her maiden name, and as ‘E. Milligan’ she wrote some 22 novels for children which appeared in a steady succession until the later 1960s. These novels conveyed a pious Christian message and most usually had an African background. They received a wide distribution as Sunday school prizes.’

Neil Dickson

Finding the book
Reasonably easy to find, though pricing can be erratic.

Links and sources
Thank you to Lisa Catz for the picture, and Neil Dickson for the biographical information.